Silliker, Homewood, IL, has entered a licensing agreement with Kraft Foods, Northfield, IL, for a patent-pending in vitro method of predicting the Glycemic Index (GI) of foods.

Kraft developed the method, which serves as a screening tool for new product formulations. It includes chemical characterization of the food as well as the use of a sophisticated statistical model, producing results that are correlated with in vivo measures of GI.

“With the exponential growth in the global demand for more healthy food products, Silliker will continue to partner with food industry R&D organizations to supply innovative services and methods of analysis,” said Jim Ondyak, president and CEO of Silliker North America.

Initially under the licensing agreement, Silliker will exclusively offer this method in North America at its Chicago Heights, IL, laboratory. In the future, the offering may be expanded to include Silliker chemistry operations in Europe and Australia.